Fermenting temperature

[Goodbeer]

G'day fellow Brewers

I recently got myself a starter kit. It came with a mangrove jacks blonde lager and a bag of dextrose. I am planning on brewing it as a hoppy blonde ale. Could turn out horrible, but not a lager drinker, and figure I'd experiment with the pouch that came with the kit.

I was just after a couple of pointers.

I have a specialty bag of wheat and one of crystal. I was going to steep one of these, just for practice, would one necessarily work better than the other for what I'm doing?

I have some halertau and some cascade hops, was going to put 14g in @15 mins. Would one work better than the other?

I have a US05 ale yeast I'm going to use. Both the ale and the pouch say 25 is maximum temp for fermentation. Where I will put the fermenter is at a stable 24-25 fairly consistently. Sunday was scorching, it got up to 25.5.

Will I be right just to put it there without anything to keep it cool?

Can't wait to get started.

Any tips would be great.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Wadey]

Hi Goodbeer, welcome to this great hobby mate. I'm no expert but you really want to be fermenting US05 at the low end of whats recommended ie about 18c. At 25c you are going to get some potential off flavours and not the best results but hey you gotta start somwhere right.

Not sure about which specialty grains or hop combo is best I'm sure someone can guide you on this.

Temp control for fermentation is probably the single most important factor mate, IMHO. There's a few ways to achieve it without getting a dedicated fridge etc, plenty of ideas if you do a search on fermentation and temp control.

Good luck

 

[shacked]

Welcome mate!

I agree with Wadey that temp control is really key to getting good results from your brews. I like to ferment US05 on the colder side at around 17-18C (I have a fridge with temp control). If you can't get a fridge, look into a 'swamp cooler'.

I'd be inclined to swap 500g of the dex for light dry malt extract or swap the kilo for a kilo of coopers brew enhancer. I find a kilo of dex is a bit too much unless you are making a big Belgian style beer.

I'd do the wheat with the hellertau (more euro style) or the crystal with the cascade (more American style). To do a hop boil, you need your liquid to have some malt extract (or even dex) in it. About 100g of dry malt extract per litre of water.

So you could steep your grain, add some DME and do your hop boil.

Download ianh's spreadsheet, it's really helpful.

Good luck and keep us posted on your brew!

 

[Goodbeer]

Great thanks boys

Yeah I'm more than exoecting a few average batches, but figure the more research and the more questions asked, the more likely I am to secceed.

Just looked into a swamp cooler. Seems pretty straight forward, guess just keeping note of how many frozen bottles gets it to a specific temp, etc.

Good advice on the dextrose, wasn't sure how much of that would be good. I'll get some light extract. Might use the dextrose for priming.

Will post how it goes.

Pretty excited

 

[Goodbeer]

Also I'm reading I want to get my water for steeping to 65-70, then steep for 20-30 mins.

Do i just turn the heat off once it hits 70? Or do I want to keep it at 70 for the whole steeping?

 

[manticle]

Doesn't matter much. If you can hold it at 70 it's vaguely good practice for mashing. Just don't bring the grains to a boil. (Do bring the resulting liquid to a boil afterwards though).

 

[shacked]

Also I'm reading I want to get my water for steeping to 65-70, then steep for 20-30 mins.

Do i just turn the heat off once it hits 70? Or do I want to keep it at 70 for the whole steeping?

When you steep the temperature dropping is not that big a deal. All you are doing is getting some flavor out of your grain. When you mash, maintaining temperature is really important because you are looking to extract sugar.

Just get your water to a few degrees above your steeping temperature, turn the stove off, add your grain and put the lid on for about half an hour. You can wrap your pot in a towel or blanket if you like.

I'm showing a mate how to do a partial mash this weekend and we are basically going to go through a very similar process: Heat water, add grain, leave, remove grain, boil, add hops, add a few tins of hopped and unhopped extract...

It's a slippery slope...

 

[abe max]

I don't have a fridge but I put my fermenter in a plastic tub put some water in and then freeze around 4 lts of ice in tuppaware, throw some in before work, some more when I get home, some more before bed, its not ideal but I have been holding my current brew at 22c and its been 30c plus all week here in Brisbane

 

[Flynn2012]

I'm using our bath, pedestal fan on constant and regular rotation of frozen water bottles to keep temp down, 22-24 I'm achieving. Next step is a temp controller and old fridge.

 

[Flynn2012]

I'm using our bath, pedestal fan on constant and regular rotation of frozen water bottles to keep temp down, 22-24 I'm achieving. Next step is a temp controller and old fridge.

 

[Matplat]

Seriously... get a fridge.

You can pick up an old bar fridge either on here somewhere or on Gumtree for $50 or less... I got one for free!

Sort out an STC-1000 and you're laughing....

 

[N3MIS15]

I'm using our bath, pedestal fan on constant and regular rotation of frozen water bottles to keep temp down, 22-24 I'm achieving. Next step is a temp controller and old fridge.

image.jpg

image.jpg

You could do similar without the tub.
http://selma.phile.com.au/beer/coopers.htm

 

[Pogierob]

I'd use both the wheat and the crystal, match it with the cascade hops and the US-05 yeast you have.


Just a question, what weights of the wheat and crystal and cascade do you have?
these figures might allow someone with more kit knowledge than I have give you some more accurate figures.

 

[Goodbeer]

I've just got a bag of 200g of both the crystal and the wheat.

Got a 100g bag of cascade.

Coincidentally the temp has dropped at my place quite a bit in the last couple of weeks so just gonna go for it without a cooler, see how it goes.

Water Temp where I'm gonna ferment has been 20-22 the last 5 days.

 

[Matplat]

I've just got a bag of 200g of both the crystal and the wheat.

Got a 100g bag of cascade.

Coincidentally the temp has dropped at my place quite a bit in the last couple of weeks so just gonna go for it without a cooler, see how it goes.

Water Temp where I'm gonna ferment has been 20-22 the last 5 days.

Yeah but bear in mind that fermentation will raise the actual wort temp 2-3 degrees... if you are at 25 degrees you are stretching the limits of tasty beer!

At the very least chuck the fermenter in an esky with some ice bricks....

 

[Goodbeer]

Ah right good point, I have read that.

I will end up getting a fridge, but just gonna see how I go without.

My only question about an esky with some ice is how to keep the temp constant? I would think that it'd go up and down, depending on how often you are able to change it???

Or am I better off with a slightly higher temp that's constant, but no cooler?

 

[wavemaker]

Gooday Goodbeer. I have been brewing successfully with kits for quite a while now (years) and can pass on the following. As stated temp control is key. Having said that I have found that a couple of degrees variation + or - is no big deal, as long as you are generally at the lower end of recommended temp. You may find that you want to have brews fermenting whilst you are drinking the current batch. It has been said that sugar is for cups of tea or coffee and generally I agree with that. Use liquid or dry malt. I prefer the Briess range. What alc content are you looking for. A lot of people who are starting out try to up alcohol to ridiculous levels. Trust me, don't bother. 4.5 to 5.00 abv is generally ample and you will get that with just a kit and bag of 1kg dex/sugar/malt. Malt requires slightly more to get equal abv. As for your grains, steeping as suggested here is fine,there are a hell of a lot of variables here but don't make your early batches harder than necessary. I have a wealth of info if you want to PM me. I want to post a couple of pics but can't see how to do that.

 

[Unclestewbrew]

I've only been brewing for 12 months and used to do a similar thing , I have a nice cool bathroom and used to sit the fermenter on the tiles , place a couple of frozen 2lt bottles against it and cover with a wet towel. Worked surprisingly well but the constant changing of bottles and nagging from the missus soon got me looking at fridges. Bought a ripper off Gumtree for $50 that holds 2 fermenters and grabbed a temp controller setup from Keg King . Can't believe I didn't do this earlier , set and forget and all out of site in the garage .
Beers are so much better temp controlled so get around to it sooner rather then later if you can

 

[Matplat]

My only question about an esky with some ice is how to keep the temp constant? I would think that it'd go up and down, depending on how often you are able to change it???

Or am I better off with a slightly higher temp that's constant, but no cooler?

As wavemaker said staying at the lower end of ferment temp with fluctuation is more important than staying constant at a higher temp.

If you replace the ice blocks every twelve hours or so, you will maintain a pretty constant temp. 23L of wort has a significant thermal mass so takes a while to change temperature if you know what I mean....

Do you have an esky of sufficient size? I was stoked when I realised our camping esky would fit the fermenter on its side!

The only issue with this method, is that you can't leave the house for very long if you are relying on it.

That being said, I don't know how people manage to maintain temp with wet towels and a fan, I tried that and the fermenter hit 28! that batch does not taste good.

 

[Goodbeer]

Unreal thanks guys.

I got a couple of plastic tubs from bunnings last week, will use one of them.

Will get this first one on the go and line up a fridge for the second one.

So I just need to get a separate temp controller? And can wire it up to any fridge?

And can just wire it up myself?